The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1848

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Chapter 8

Chapters 9-15

Chapters 16-22

Chapters 23-33

Chapters 34-44

Chapters 45-53

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Literary Devices

Foil

Just as Brontë uses several couples to interrogate the qualities that make a successful marriage (See: Themes), several individual characters in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall serve as foils to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the protagonists. In the first third of the novel, Eliza Millward and Jane Wilson are foils who offer conflict and illustrate the mysteries and potential danger around Mrs. Graham. They illustrate the value of a woman’s reputation, the destructive power of gossip, and the importance of marriage to a woman’s station. They also establish—in contrast to their malice—Helen’s high-mindedness and moral virtue.

Annabella Wilmot and Millicent Hargrave are foils who comment, through contrast, on Helen’s hopes and beliefs about marriage. Annabella’s mercenary grounds for accepting Lowborough contrast with Helen’s more idealistic beliefs that marriage is a sacred commitment built on trust and love. Millicent, who shares Helen’s moral values but is more compliant in nature, takes a different approach to handling her husband, and by never reproving him attempts to behave as a model wife.

Frederick Lawrence and Walter Hargrave, as gentlemen and suitors, act as foils to Gilbert by providing contrasting views of a young man’s relationships with his sisters and approaches to wooing a potential bride. While Frederick shows loyalty to Helen and chooses his bride based on her good moral qualities, Hargrave reveals himself to be selfish and prone to violent behavior towards Millicent. Hargrave’s eventual transformation and ability to mature mirrors Gilbert’s own moral improvement by the novel’s end.

Allusion

An allusion is a reference to a person, place, event, object, or other literary work that adds meaning and context to a text. An example is when Gilbert gives Helen a copy of Marmion, by Sir Walter Scott (1808). The book is a historical romance in verse, set in the 16th century, which describes the adventures in love and war of Lord Marmion. The book was popular and a favorite in the Brontë household. Here, the allusion may be an inside joke for Anne’s sisters, since Marmion appears in Charlotte’s novel Jane Eyre as well.

The novel makes frequent allusions to classics of English literature, including works by Alexander Pope, William Shakespeare, and Thomas Gray, not only revealing Anne Brontë’s literary influences but also suggesting that her characters are educated and well-read. By far the most frequent allusions are to the Christian Bible. Frequent phrases referencing proverbs, parables, and especially the Gospels of the New Testament, provide moral commentary as well as a reminder of Helen’s strong religious beliefs.

Genre: Realism Versus Romance

Anne Brontë’s realistic depiction of people and events was part of the 19th century’s turn toward realism in novels. Novels of the 18th century and early 19th century tended toward dramatic, sensational, or overly-romanticized subjects as, for example, in the historical romances of Walter Scott or the plots of the hugely popular Gothic novels of Ann Radcliffe. Romance novels focused on the courtship and eventual marriage of the protagonists, often with highly dramatic and even absurd obstacles providing conflict along the way.

While the narrative Gilbert tells follows a romance plot, showing his courtship of Helen, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall resists classification as a romance for several reasons. One is its structure. The middle portion of Helen’s journal is the central story, and its pattern is more of a heroic journey or coming-of-age tale than a romance. It also reveals what can happen after marriage, whereas many conventional romances treat the protagonist’s marriage as the novel’s ending. For many readers, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is Helen Huntingdon’s story of escaping an abusive marriage, with the parts with Gilbert serving more as bookends.

In another sense, the book leans toward realism in its exploration of social conventions like marriage and gender norms, education, and moral behavior and responsibility, including the repercussions of addictive behaviors. Whereas romance characters tend to be flawed but likable to encourage identification from readers, Brontë’s characters are flawed and psychologically complex: Gilbert needs to learn to overcome his immaturity and selfishness to be ready for a true union with Helen, just as Helen needs to undergo disillusionment and a struggle for independence to regain her sense of self-worth and direction.